Tag Archives: photography

As you can see from the photo above, there were some changes at the ruins of the Palmerston Town Hall between 2019 (Monday’s article) and 2020 (above). The townspeople added an artistic, spiked globe between the front and back walls.

But let’s move on to today’s Fun Photo Friday favorites of Darwin and Litchfield National Park:

During our 2019 trip to Darwin we took a tour. The two sights we were destined to see that day were the famous Wangi Falls (more on that later), and the fascinating and massive Magnetic Termite Mounds located in Litchfield National Park.

Anatomy of a magnetic termite mound

These mounds are not “magnetic”. Nor are the termites that make them. Rather, the term refers to how these termites (amitermes meridionalis) construct the main axis of these slab-sided mounds along a north-south orientation. Some of these mounds may reach 6.5 feet/2 meters in height:

Magnetic termite mounds

But these aren’t the only termites here. There is another even more impressive species called the cathedral termite (nasutitermes triodiae). Let’s head on up to one and take a look.

Approaching Cathedral Termite Mound

As you may have deduced from the name, a cathedral termite mound is one on a truly grand scale. Some reach 13 feet/4 meters!

Cathedral termite mound

Now let’s head out to another Litchfield National Park attraction, Wangi Falls.

As with other articles in this series on Australia and New Zealand, the photos you’ll see this week were taken during two visits — March 2019 and February of this year. Today we’re going to walk around the streets of Darwin situated on the Timor Sea in the Northern Territory of Australia. It’s a small hike into Darwin from the cruise ship terminal at Fort Hill Wharf. Along the pedestrian walkway you’ll head northeast as you pass south of Stokes Hill Wharf :

Stokes Hill Wharf

This is actually a fun walk, because you’ll soon arrive at a foot bridge that takes you west, past the Big Buoy Water Park to a row of shops, restaurants, and cafés that make up the ground floor of a large waterfront apartment complex. Cut across the green space and you get to another storefront-laden apartment complex that contains a public elevator. Take the elevator here, or the stairs if you’re so inclined, because we have to get up to street level for the town center.

Looking back toward the Darwin Waterfront Precinct

From up here you’ll find a few things of interest:

Darwin Waterfront Precinct

Continue northwest along the pedestrian sky bridge, head up some more steps, and you arrive at Smith Street, which takes you straight into Darwin’s main shopping district. Heading toward the pedestrian shopping area (“The Mall”) you’ll pass several sights. This is the Christ Church Cathedral:

Christ Church Cathedral

Just before the cathedral, on the opposite side of the street near the Darwin Supreme Court building, is a bronze statue of a Tawny Frogmouth Owl by artist Koolpinyah Barnes: